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Slightly off-topic, but what would be a good book to learn guile (scheme, lisp) for someone with solid programming background (C, ruby, php, golang but no lisp

Slightly off-topic, but what would be a good book to learn guile (scheme, lisp) for someone with solid programming background (C, ruby, php, golang but no lisp at all)? I always wanted to give it a try but not sure where to start.

eadmund 4y ago
To learn Lisp, rather than Scheme, Practical Common Lisp is awesome. It's available online for free at https://gigamonkeys.com/book/ https://gigamonkeys.com/book/, but I recommend purchasing it if you can.
Hammershaft 4y ago
Structure & Interpretation of Computer Programs!
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- fny 4y ago
  https://xuanji.appspot.com/isicp/ https://xuanji.appspot.com/isicp/
  - zelphirkalt 4y ago
    I think that is the interactive-inside-the-browser version? Of course the original is the MIT Press version at https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/ https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/
laerus 4y ago
The Little Schemer and the Seasoned Schemer
dgb23 4y ago
The Little Schemer is a playful introduction and SICP is more impactful but also more challenging book. Even if you already know how to program, it will force you to re-wire how you think about programming. SICP is great at teaching concepts and testing your knowledge, but it lacks an important part that is not quite obvious at first: Interactive programming AKA how to actually use a Lisp. I recommend you watch some videos of people using an IDE/Emacs or some text editor with sufficient support like VSCode to write Lisp code interactively. How they build a program while it is running. But also doing mechanical things like navigation and structural editing. Step 1 is the basic mechanics of that, leveraging an integrated REPL and language constructs. Step 2 is to make this productive and fluent, by using workflows, tricks and tools that let you introspect what is there, manage program state, move things around effectively etc. Step 3 is then to go beyond and not just write the program in a direct fashion, but experiment, generate data, visualizations, interactive debugging etc.
- joshbochu 4y ago
  > I recommend you watch some videos of people using an IDE/Emacs or some text editor with sufficient support like VSCode to write Lisp code interactively. How they build a program while it is running. But also doing mechanical things like navigation and structural editing. Could you please provide a link to some example videos you recommend? Greatly appreciated!
rapnie 4y ago
Author of the post recently wrote A Scheme Primer. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32010490 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32010490
- LanternLight83 4y ago
  I second this, emphatically! Between all the books and talks I've been through, this stands out for how much it packs in and how approachability it does so. I can't really give a perspective from a beginners view, but for a programmer with existing experience in other languages, think this is a great piece to read.
  - paroneayea 4y ago
    Aw thank you both <3
medo-bear 4y ago
Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming by Peter Norvig https://github.com/norvig/paip-lisp https://github.com/norvig/paip-lisp
nanna 4y ago
David S. Touretzky, Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation. It's the most beginner-friendly Common Lisp textbook but it might be worth it even for a seasoned programmer of other languages just for how nicely it explains lisp-specific concepts and constructs. The first edition is available for free: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/ https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/

eadmund 4y ago

To learn Lisp, rather than Scheme, Practical Common Lisp is awesome. It's available online for free at https://gigamonkeys.com/book/ https://gigamonkeys.com/book/, but I recommend purchasing it if you can.

Hammershaft 4y ago

Structure & Interpretation of Computer Programs!

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
fny 4y ago
https://xuanji.appspot.com/isicp/ https://xuanji.appspot.com/isicp/
- zelphirkalt 4y ago
  I think that is the interactive-inside-the-browser version? Of course the original is the MIT Press version at https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/ https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/

laerus 4y ago

The Little Schemer and the Seasoned Schemer

dgb23 4y ago

The Little Schemer is a playful introduction and SICP is more impactful but also more challenging book. Even if you already know how to program, it will force you to re-wire how you think about programming. SICP is great at teaching concepts and testing your knowledge, but it lacks an important part that is not quite obvious at first: Interactive programming AKA how to actually use a Lisp. I recommend you watch some videos of people using an IDE/Emacs or some text editor with sufficient support like VSCode to write Lisp code interactively. How they build a program while it is running. But also doing mechanical things like navigation and structural editing. Step 1 is the basic mechanics of that, leveraging an integrated REPL and language constructs. Step 2 is to make this productive and fluent, by using workflows, tricks and tools that let you introspect what is there, manage program state, move things around effectively etc. Step 3 is then to go beyond and not just write the program in a direct fashion, but experiment, generate data, visualizations, interactive debugging etc.

joshbochu 4y ago
> I recommend you watch some videos of people using an IDE/Emacs or some text editor with sufficient support like VSCode to write Lisp code interactively. How they build a program while it is running. But also doing mechanical things like navigation and structural editing. Could you please provide a link to some example videos you recommend? Greatly appreciated!

rapnie 4y ago

Author of the post recently wrote A Scheme Primer. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32010490 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32010490

LanternLight83 4y ago
I second this, emphatically! Between all the books and talks I've been through, this stands out for how much it packs in and how approachability it does so. I can't really give a perspective from a beginners view, but for a programmer with existing experience in other languages, think this is a great piece to read.
- paroneayea 4y ago
  Aw thank you both <3

medo-bear 4y ago

Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming by Peter Norvig https://github.com/norvig/paip-lisp https://github.com/norvig/paip-lisp

nanna 4y ago

David S. Touretzky, Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation. It's the most beginner-friendly Common Lisp textbook but it might be worth it even for a seasoned programmer of other languages just for how nicely it explains lisp-specific concepts and constructs. The first edition is available for free: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/ https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/